


got me wrong

by Nokomis



Series: something's gotta turn out right [2]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: (they're preemptive but not entirely wrong), Everyone makes a lot of assumptions about Steph and Jason's relationship, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Misunderstandings, Shovel Talk, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-07 08:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26470087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nokomis/pseuds/Nokomis
Summary: As Steph and Jason become closer, everyone keeps makingassumptionsabout what's going on between them. Steph should probably do more to curb those rumors.
Relationships: Stephanie Brown/Jason Todd
Series: something's gotta turn out right [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923196
Comments: 19
Kudos: 206





	got me wrong

**Author's Note:**

> This picks up immediately after the events of _bury me softly_. Huge thanks to Rainpuddle for the beta!

Breakfast was weird.

Steph isn’t sure what she expected her mom to do, upon finding a guy sleeping in her bed, but it certainly wasn’t making waffles for everyone. The events of the day before -- being trapped with Jason in a sewer, getting on surprisingly well, then having a totally platonic slumber party featuring works of classic literature -- seemed somehow surreal by the light of day, except for the fact that there was Jason, right there in her bed.

Her mom’s casual offer of breakfast had made waking up a lot less awkward than Steph imagined it would have been otherwise -- at some point in the night she’d wrapped a blanket around herself and curled up, back pressed against Jason’s side, and the book they’d been reading had fallen to the floor. Her mom’s announcement that breakfast was being served allowed them to get up and quickly get presentable -- not difficult when Jason had slept fully dressed -- and shuffle downstairs in quick order.

Silence had reigned as they devoured their food, her mother tactfully not asking for his name. 

“Here, have another,” her mom said, sliding another warm waffle onto Jason’s cleaned plate. 

“Thanks,” he grinned up at her, and once he turned to devouring the waffle, her mom gave her a _thumbs up_ behind his back and mouthed, “He’s cute!”

Steph gave her mom a pained, _cut-it-out_ look before realizing that while her mom’s antics were safely out of Jason’s line of sight, Steph’s face certainly wasn’t. He grinned at her, just shy of fully laughing at her as she clunked her head down on the table. Maybe if she just stared at the tabletop for the next few days everyone would leave her in peace.

Her mom put extra whipped cream on her waffle, though, so she was forced to face the world (and Jason’s utter delight, _ugh_ , kill her now) much sooner than anticipated.

“Mom, don’t get the wrong idea--” Steph began, because Jason had certainly not done _anything_ to clear up the misconception that their sleepover had been recreational, but her mom interrupted her.

“Oh, I know, he’s one of your _type_ ,” her mom said, waving the can of whipped cream merrily. 

Jason shot her a vaguely panicked look, and Steph just shrugged. She wasn’t going to rat him out, but it wasn’t like her mom was stupid or anything. Jason just kind of looked like someone who punched people for funsies, and Steph’s mom knew she didn’t hang out with goons.

“Besides,” her mom continued, adding whipped cream to her own waffle and settling down at the table, “it’s not like you’ve gone out with anyone in… how long?”

Jason let out what could only be described as a cackle of glee, while Steph reacquainted her face with the tabletop. “Mooooom. What did I ever do to you?”

Her mom patted her on the head. “So much, dear. So much.”

Jason was still grinning when he left, the sound of his motorcycle fading long before her mom’s questions did.

*

After that, the dam was broken. 

Steph was amazed at how easy it was to do a total one-eighty in her relationship with Jason. They had never really spent time together, but one evening of being trapped together and suddenly he felt like one of her closest friends. He sent a text making fun of her and totally taking her mom’s side shortly after he left. He must have texted her as soon as he got home. 

Teasing him back was an easy thing too. She should feel more nervous— given everything, given his background, but it wasn’t like they were strangers. There were only so many people on earth who could truly understand what their lives were like, and with Jason there was that added layer of totally understanding what their childhoods had been like. 

She liked how he didn’t shy away from making fun of her dad or making references to things that kids with a parent in prison, especially scumbags like their respective fathers, knew. Things that made the others, the ones who had been raised by good people, go soft in the eyes with pity and that understanding that made Steph want to scream. 

It was nice. Just… really nice.

*

She met with Tim for lunch at a grilled cheese food truck parked outside of campus. He greeted her with a plate of cheesy fries, which was definitely a contender for her favorite way of being greeted.

“You sir are truly a gift to mankind,” Steph said, shoving fries in her mouth. 

“Thanks,” Tim said.

“Definitely was talking to the fries, but as their purchaser, you’re allowed to share in their glory,” Steph replied. 

Tim grinned and bumped shoulders with her. The picnic tables were full, so they headed for a shady spot under a tree. Steph pulled out a few textbooks to use as makeshift tables, figuring they might as well make themselves useful in multiple ways, given that they cost more than any actual table in the Brown household. 

Tim updated her on the latest antics of Damian and Dick while they ate their food. Steph snorted as she listened to Tim’s spot-on imitation of Damian’s snootiest inflect when he found out that Dick had been drinking from the milk carton in the Manor. 

“Gotta say, I’m kinda with the kid on this one,” Steph said. “Super gross. What if he has cooties?”

“Cooties seem unlikely,” Tim snickered.

“Uh, he’s been on so many superhero teams, Tim, are you really going to argue that he couldn’t have come into contact with cooties somewhere along the way? Think of all the kissing he’s done, and then he put that mouth right on the milk carton--”

Tim laughed, and Steph took a moment to appreciate that after all they’d gone through together, they’d managed to come out on the other side as friends. 

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she dug it out to see a message from Jason. _was thinking we still need to finish our book._

Steph was a big girl, she could admit that the flutter that she felt at our book was ridiculous and also completely justified. Yesterday morning, waking up next to Jason had been so hectic that she hadn’t thought about it, but this morning, waking up alone… She’d felt his absence, which was so dumb, since it has only been the once. She’d spent more time than she really wanted to acknowledge thinking about his warmth, the solid feel of him against her, the way they’d so easily fallen into a gentle physicality. Steph was a tactile person, but she didn’t get the impression that cuddles came as easily to Jason, and that made the fact that he’d trusted her enough to fall asleep in her room all the more special.

_looking forward to it_ , she sent back. _i get to pick the next one though._

The reply was immediate. Steph pictured him standing there, watching the indicator that she was typing, waiting for her words. She smiled, soft and sweet, at the image. _You can try but you can’t top Pride & Prejudice._

_idk how do you feel about vampires?_ She grinned at the phone, imagining Jason’s indignation, then put it facedown in the grass, turning her attention back to Tim, who’d sat quietly watching her wistfully the whole time. 

“What?” she said, feeling strangely embarrassed. Her cheeks felt a little warm, and she took a sip of her drink.

Tim shook his head. “Nothing. So how’d your quiz go?”

Steph’s phone buzzed quietly, cushioned by the grass, and she ignored it, no matter how curious she was about Jason’s reaction. “Pretty sure I crushed it, actually.” 

Her phone buzzed again, and both her and Tim’s eyes drifted towards it. Tim said, “You going to ignore that?”

Steph shook her head and looked; Jason had sent her a string of texts hoping she was kidding about vampire books and if not, that he _really_ hoped she was talking about anything but _Twilight_ , and Steph’s mouth quirked up. “Wow, it’s really easy to get Jason all worked up, isn’t it?”

“You’re talking to Jason?” Tim didn’t sound that surprised. “I heard about the other night.”

Steph rolled her eyes. “It was just my luck, that out of all the sewers in Gotham, we ended up in one that collapsed.”

“Is that the Gotham version of _of all the gin joints in the world?_ ” Tim teased.

Steph laughed, but wasn’t quite sure how to reply. She just shook her head. Her first impulse was to tell Tim that it wasn’t like that, that they were forming a book club, which… was kind of true, except that it felt more intimate than that. Like something she didn’t want to share. 

She set her phone down, suddenly self-conscious of texting Jason with an audience. Tim didn’t sound disapproving, but he was definitely seeing something that wasn’t there. She didn’t want to fuel that fire.

Luckily, at that moment, Tim checked his own phone, face lighting up as he read the message. Steph had far less shame than Tim did; she leaned over to see the contact name, and beamed when she saw it was Conner. “Oooh,” she said, poking Tim in the side. “Have you figured out if he’s flirting yet?”

“Not yet,” Tim said, tapping out a reply and watching the screen. A faint pink blush was high on his cheeks, and Steph thought it was beyond adorable. 

She decided to be merciful and didn’t bring it up again, though she definitely thought that Tim was being an idiot because Conner was absolutely flirting with him. She took advantage of his distraction, though, and sent a reply to Jason -- _guess we’ll have to finish P &P so you can find out ;)_ \-- and finished her lunch.

It wasn’t until after Tim left that she realized she’d never actually denied that something was going on between her and Jason.

*

Patrol was going swimmingly. She’d stopped a mugging, kicked an attempted rapist in the face, and was following up on a lead for a liquor store robbery when Nightwing dropped onto the roof beside her.

Steph managed to not make a startled noise, thank you very much, though she couldn’t keep her shoulders from popping up. Dick was a gentleman and didn’t gloat over managing to surprise a fellow Bat, though he was well within his rights to do so. 

“Want a hand?”

Steph glanced up at him, a little surprised. They got along, but rarely worked together in the field; she couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted to team up, especially for something as mundane as a few guys in ski masks.

Steph was not, however, an idiot, and happily accepted Dick’s offer. Fighting crime with him was fun and easy; she admired his style, and he laughed at her jokes. She appreciated that he seemed unable to stop himself from making the corniest joke possible, and she absolutely supported and endorsed that. 

They had the robbers zip-tied and waiting on the GCPD within minutes, and Steph had almost forgotten her initial misgivings about Dick showing up.

“Glad you and Jason hit it off so well the other night.” 

Aaaand there it was. Steph had had a feeling Tim had blabbed about the fact that she and Jason were talking.

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s weird that we never really spent time together before. Guess Gotham’s crumbling infrastructure took care of that one for us.”

Dick laughed quietly. “Yeah, it does that. Just…” He looked out across the city, wind ruffling his hair. “Don’t let him get to you, okay? He has a tendency to try to push people away if he thinks they’re getting too close.”

Steph bit back a comment about how that could describe any of the Bats. Instead she just nodded. “You know I’m not easy to push away.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” Dick nudged her, smiling. 

“And besides, there was no _getting too close_ ,” she added. 

“Really?” Dick raised his eyebrow at her. 

Which, seriously. He’d been the one to help them out of the sewer! She rolled her eyes and said sarcastically.“Yeah, you got me, totally made out like bandits.”

“Knew it, you two were vibing.”

This was the moment where she absolutely needed to clarify that there was nothing romantic going on between them. That no hanky panky went down in the sewers. She kind of was insulted that there was apparently a widespread belief that she would be down for sewer hanky-panky.

Steph mentally reviewed what they’d actually done when trapped together alone for hours -- read classic literature and discussed their future parenting abilities -- and for a moment thought that maybe Dick’s assumption was far less embarrassing. 

She was so caught up in that line of thought that she missed the opportunity to correct him; both of them got an alert about a possible Mad Hatter situation happening downtown.

Another fight after a long patrol exhausted her, and by the time the action was over, she was on a single-minded mission to get back to her bed, barely even bidding Dick farewell. When she got home, she half-hoped to find Jason there, waiting by her window, book in hand. 

He wasn’t, but just as she was sinking into her bed, her phone rang. She stared blearily at the screen, trying to figure out why someone was actually calling her at this ungodly hour.

It was Jason. She answered it, and his voice was low and rough in her ear. “Got involved in some stuff tonight, so I can’t make it there.”

“S’ok,” Steph said. She tugged her blanket around her shoulders and said, “You okay?”

“Yeah, it was just inconvenient, not life-threatening.” What strange lives they lead, that he sounded so casual saying that. “I was thinking we could still read.”

He sounded young as he made that suggestion, utterly lacking in the brash attitude that had marked their conversations thus far. Steph found that unbearably endearing.

“I like that idea,” she said honestly. “I’ll try my best not to fall asleep.” Her first class wasn’t for six hours; she’d be fine. 

He never specified where he was, but Steph imagined that he was in his own bed, relaxed enough to read the Austen aloud. 

Steph drifted off with Jason’s voice rumbling gently in her ear. 

*

Stephanie perched her favorite oversized sunglasses on her nose and settled more comfortably into the chaise lounge overlooking Wayne Manor’s opulent pool. There were statues pouring water into it, for goodness’ sake, even though it was (as far as she knew) rarely used by the occupants. Bruce never lounged, poolside or otherwise, and Tim was equally driven. She spent some time here with Cass, and probably Damian swam, but in general, the pool mostly sat there looking pretty.

Thus making it the absolute perfect environment to finish her American lit paper. 

A shadow fell over her. “Stephanie.” 

Steph blinked up at Bruce. “You know, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen you out in the sunlight. I kind of thought you would burst into flames, like a vampire. Do you want some sunscreen?” She reached into her bag for a bottle of it.

Bruce waved it away and sat down on the edge of the nearest chaise. He clasped his hands loosely, knees akimbo, and he managed to look both awkward and stiff as he sat in the most uncomfortable possible manner on what was meant to be a lounge chair.

Then he just sat there, looking at her.

Steph put her laptop down. Looked like she was in for a lecture, though she had no idea what about. And usually Bruce just started listing the things she’d done wrong, not sitting there wrong-footed. “Are you okay, big guy?”

Bruce didn’t bother to answer that question. “I heard about the tunnel collapse.”

Of course he had. “Yeah, that was unfortunate.”

Bruce nodded, looking unhappy. “I see.”

“Yeah,” Steph said, because she had no freaking idea what Bruce expected her to say. Maybe she should downplay the incident? Even though she’d done absolutely everything by the book? “Company was decent at least?”

“I heard.” Definite disapproval there, which… Steph thought Bruce was over the whole pushing-Jason-away-for-his-own-good thing? Granted, she tried her best to stay out of Bruce’s family life, given that dealing with the vigilante side of things put more than enough on her plate. Maybe there’d been drama she’d been blissfully unaware of.

“Cool, cool,” Steph said. She glanced longingly at her laptop, but Bruce, for once in his life, showed no signs of leaving the conversation alone. 

“Do you think this course is wise?” Bruce continued, as though she had any idea what he was talking about.

“Who’s to say, really?” Steph tried, because she was floundering here. From Bruce’s unimpressed look, it was not an ideal answer.

“Just remember to keep a clear head,” Bruce continued. “Don’t get wrapped up in emotion and make hasty choices.”

“I would never,” Steph said. Was he trying to give her crime fighting advice? That seemed probable. Maybe he thought that she’d caused the tunnel collapse somehow. That seemed on-brand. 

“I just don’t want to see him get hurt.” Bruce looked almost earnest. It was a strange expression on his face, more open than usual, and Steph nodded to show that she understood.

Not that she did really, but fake it til you make it had always been one of her mottos. “There is no danger of that.”

Bruce nodded, and finally stood up, looking around as he prepared to abandon this weird as hell conversation and leave Steph be. “Why _are_ you doing your schoolwork here, if you don’t mind my asking?” 

“I’m writing about _The Great Gatsby_ ,” Steph said blithely, gesturing towards the surroundings. “I wanted the right ambiance, you know?”

Bruce’s mouth tightened, and she had absolutely no idea whether he was amused or angry. Luckily for her, he turned and went back inside before she could make a comment and learn which one. 

*

That night, she met up with Cass on her patrol.

“Listen, have you checked out B’s body language lately? Is he losing it? Or do we have an evil twin situation again? Because I need to finish my lit paper before we have any major events.”

Cass blinked at her. “I don’t understand.”

Steph draped herself across a convenient gargoyle as dramatically as she could. “I was at the Manor today, hanging by the pool, not doing anything at all controversial and B-man showed up and had the weirdest most awkward talk with me in the history of awkward mentor conversations. I’m super confused, Cass, so I thought… evil twin?”

Cass perched daintily on the neighboring gargoyle, looking for all the world like a bird poised to take flight. “No evil twin.”

“Mind control, then? Ooh, maybe someone unleashed an ancient curse. You guys would tell me if there was an ancient curse turning everyone into after school special versions of themselves, right?”

Cass was grinning at her through the mask, Steph just knew it. “Maybe.”

“Ugh.” Steph rolled over on her back, staring up at the sky. “Why is everyone being super weird?”

“Bruce cares,” Cass said. Steph rolled her eyes, about to make a comment about exactly high up in Bruce’s esteem she was, when Cass continued. “Doesn’t like to see Jason hurt.”

“Ja--- That was about _dating Jason?_ ” Steph tried to process it. “Oh my God, did I get the shovel talk from Batman and _didn’t even realize it?_ I’m not even dating his son! Anymore! And I didn’t get a shovel talk when I _did_ date his son! The other one, I mean!”

She clamped her mouth shut as she realized she was talking nonsense, but her brain just refused to accept what Cass suggested. “Like, you guys know that me and Jason have hung out like, once, ever, right?”

That was accurate only if she didn’t count their trapped-in-the-tunnel as hanging out. And downplayed the fact that their only major hangout had been a sleepover. And that he’d met her mom, which Cass hadn’t even done. And that they were spending an awful lot of time texting each other. And talking on the phone, and… wow. Steph had not realized how Jason-centric her life had become recently.

Cass waited until she was done ranting, then said calmly, “Dick said you were.”

“Dick? Why would Dick think…. _Ohh_ ,” Steph said, a lightbulb going off in her head. “Oh no. Cass, this is all a giant misunderstanding because I might have forgotten to clear up the fact that I was using sarcasm, and also, that all former Robins are morons.”

Cass gave her a look.

“I am absolutely including myself in that, yes,” Steph said. 

*

At study group, Steph was actually explaining an answer on the homework to Jordanna when her phone started buzzing with incoming text messages.

“Uh, sorry,” she said, hastily turning off vibrate to keep her phone from bouncing its happy self right off the table.

“Miss Popularity, huh?” Jordanna said with undisguised curiosity.

Steph glanced at her screen and saw the latest message coming in, a handful of question marks from Jason. “Ugh. I wish.”

“Sounds juicy.”

“More like idiotic,” Steph said, and then realized she had the perfect unbiased opinion-giver available to her right now. Jordanna wouldn’t hold punches and she would maybe see a way to unfuck the situation. She’d only seen Babs briefly when she’d stopped by her office earlier, and Babs’ expression had been so knowing that she’d ducked out as quickly as possible. Jordanna was lacking a lot of key embarrassing details about her life, so maybe she was the perfect one to help out. “So, hypothetically…”

“Super hypothetically, yeah.” Jordanna gave Steph’s phone a wry look.

_“Hypothetically,_ ” Steph said louder, “what would a person do if, perhaps, they told the brother of someone they are potentially interested in, but have had no romantic interactions with, that they, and this is not a quote, made out like bandits with him?”

Jordanna blinked a few times, clearly mentally untangling Steph’s words. “Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t say that I did! But if I did, how do I fix it?”

“How attached are you to this family? Because cut and running is a pretty good option.” Jordanna didn’t look bored, at least.

“Unfortunately I can’t,” Steph said, though she didn’t specify why. It was way too hard to explain that they worked together when Jordanna only knew about her work study job, and if she brought up the fact that she was talking about her ex-boyfriend and current best friends’ brothers… the waters were murky enough as-is. 

“Well,” Jordanna said slowly, “there are really only two options when abandoning ship isn’t viable. Either you lean into it fully, or you pretend it never happened.”

Steph clunked her head down on the table. “Both are terrible options,” she told the tabletop.”I was just being sarcastic, and boys are dumb and took it as gospel, and now I’m getting relationship advice on dealing with someone I haven’t so much as held hands with!”

“Then hold hands with him,” Jordanna said with a shrug.

Like things were just that easy. 

*

Avoiding everyone until the assumption died out wasn’t an option, but Steph thought that she would at least have until after dinner to consider how she was handling it. But nope. There she was, sitting in the campus cafe eating a grilled cheese, staring at itsy bitsy Damian Wayne.

He’d appeared at some point between her sitting down and her adding ketchup to her plate for her fries, and she had visibly started when noticing him, which had only added to his smug demeanor.

“Does your dad know where you are?” she asked immediately, because she knew for a fact that Alfred did not tolerate Damian missing meals.

“There was an issue with the League,” Damian said, and it said a lot about his tone towards both that she wasn’t sure if he meant Justice or Assassins. “I informed Pennyworth that I would be dining elsewhere.”

He looked at her plate meaningfully, and Steph sighed and returned to the line to get him some food. She supposed she couldn’t begrudge him the swipe of her meal card, since her Wayne Foundation scholarship funded that particular expense. 

When she’d returned, she found that her own fries had disappeared. Damian sat there primly, as though sugar wouldn’t melt in his mouth, and she shook the second basket of fries she’d bought preemptively. “Thought you might do that.”

Damain’s lips pursed, clearly disliking the thought of being predictable, but he accepted the food anyway. 

“So what do I owe this visit?” Steph said, knowing full well why Damian had to be there. “I’m assuming this is social, since you left the katana at home?”

At least, she hoped he had.

Damian nodded once curtly. He then dove into his food without explaining himself, eating with the ferocious intensity only a middle schooler could manage. Steph could try badgering him until he explained himself, but by then her grilled cheese would be cold, so instead she shrugged and focused on her own dinner.

It was easy to forget Damian’s more abrasive personality traits while sitting quietly together in the real world, eating fries and not wearing capes. It was easy to forget sometimes just how young he was. 

“Okay,” Steph said finally, “lay it on me, kid.”

Damian scowled, and since he was holding a french fry instead of a throwing star, it was almost adorable. Not at all murderous. If Steph thought she had a chance in hell in getting away with it without a sprained wrist she would try to ruffle his hair. Maybe give him a noogie. 

“I do not think you should become romantically involved with Todd.” 

“Ooo-kay,” Steph said. “Dare I ask why?”

Damian looked like he would rather eat glass than answer, but after a long moment he actually did. “I do not have time to challenge Todd over your honor when the relationship meets its inevitable messy end.”

Steph grinned, clasping her hands to her heart. “Dami, that might be the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“It was not intended to be,” he said, looking halfway between embarrassed and pleased. It was a good look on the kid, it made him look like a typical tween. 

“I especially like where you assume Jason would be the one to mess things up,” Steph said cheerfully, ignoring the strangeness of hypothesizing about that particular relationship with Damian of all people.

“I assumed Drake had been the one to cause your previous relationship failure, and it stands to reason that Todd would similarly fail.” 

Apparently Steph was much higher in Damian’s esteem than she had realized. “Awwww, little buddy.” She tried to lean over the table far enough to hug him, but Damian evaded her, though the tips of his ears went red. It was adorable. 

In her back pocket, her phone buzzed, and she tried to ignore it Damian raised an eyebrow at her.

“What, like you’ve never ignored a call?” Steph said, but a second later felt guilty because what if someone was seriously hurt or needed backup or something? She pulled out her phone. A single message from Jason: _everyone is being super weird._

_Aren’t they always_ , Steph replied quickly, forgoing her usual array of emojis and gifs and shoving the phone back in her pocket.

Damian finally lowered his eyebrow, but the judgement was still clear. “You’re being weird,” he said, unknowingly echoing Jason.

Steph sighed. “If I said it wasn’t any of your business, would you leave me be?”

“I have no desire to hear of your personal problems,” Damian said.

“You literally came here to talk about my personal life,” Steph said. Honestly, the gall of him. “Exclusively. You -- how did you even get here? Please tell me you didn’t steal a car.”

“I borrowed it,” Damian said stiffly.

“Oh God,” Steph said. “Tell me it’s not a Lambo or something stupid flashy that I’m going to have to explain away when I drive your unlicensed ass home.”

Damian very deliberately focused on the salt and pepper shakers, scooting them around the table and inspecting them closely.

She did not have time for this, but she also didn’t have time to explain to Bruce why she let his kid get sent to juvie for joyriding. “Okay, kiddo, let’s get you back home.”

“I can stay in the city. Patrol,” Damian said.

“And do what with the car?” Steph sometimes didn’t understand how she’d come to surround herself with so many rich people. If she’d stolen her parent’s car when she was twelve, she never would have even considered abandoning it on a college campus. She would have snuck it back into the driveway and pretended like the dent on the fender had always been there, they just hadn’t noticed it. Her twelve-year-old-self had way more survival instincts than Damian ever thought about having.

Steph made Damian pick up the table before they left, pointing out that she’d bought dinner so cleanup was on him, and was proud of him when he didn’t argue. A few minutes later and she was staring at a rose gold Bugatti parked somewhat haphazardly in a faculty spot.

“You realize you’re supposed to put it between the lines, right?”

“I was in a hurry,” Damian said evasively, and didn’t look at her when she opened the driver’s side door and found a small pile of textbooks in the seat that Damain had clearly been using as a makeshift booster.

The kid had suffered enough embarrassment, though, so Steph just silently moved the books and climbed in. She took a long moment to appreciate where she was and what she was doing -- this car was fucking incredible -- while simultaneously hoping that no one she knew recognized her because how the hell would she explain away driving a Bugatti. 

Her life, seriously.

*

“So I heard an interesting rumor today.” Jason announced.

Steph, to her credit, didn’t fall off the ledge she was standing on and managed to mostly look like she’d known Jason was there. Patrol had been going so smoothly, too. “Yeah?”

“For some reason,” Jason said slowly, “everyone thinks we’re dating?”

“Oh, that,” Steph said. ”Yeah. That’s a thing.”

Jason blinked at her. She stared back at him, unblinking.

_“Why?”_

“Because everyone we know is a moron?” Steph said, which wasn’t fair at all, but Jason was entirely too incredulous at the thought of them dating and it put her on offense.

“Well, yeah, but they normally aren’t morons about my love life,” Jason replied.

Steph only just stopped herself from asking what love life, exactly, he was referring to. “Well .see what happened was,” she began, “I made the mistake of being sarcastic to Dick when he was talking about how buddy-buddy we were in the sewer, and it just spiralled wildly out of control from there.”

“And you couldn’t have un-spiralled it?” Jason’s voice raised a bit, and Steph peered at him, curious.

“Why are you so wound up about this? Like, did Damian say something to you?” She could only imagine. The kid had both too much and too little imagination simultaneously. It was a contradiction that only Bruce could have spawned, truly. She didn’t even get mad when he called her Fatgirl because it was so stunningly uncreative, she was almost proud of him for continuing to think it was clever.

“Not Damian.” Jason sighed and stared up at the sky. “Bruce.”

“Oh, you too?” Steph rolled her eyes. “I don’t even want to know what all he said about me to scare you off. I promise it wasn’t true. No matter what evidence he used to prove my faults.”

“Prove your-- What?” Jason said. “No, he gave me a whole weird lecture on not hurting you.”

Steph choked on thin air. “Are you fucking serious?”

“I know, it was so uncomfortable,” Jason said. “I mean, I couldn’t even get a word in edgewise and he didn’t even believe me when I said we weren’t together.”

Steph waved her hand. “No, I’m stuck back on the fact that Bruce, you know, the guy we both know, the one with the cave and everything, gave you, his beloved son, the shovel talk on my behalf.” Steph found that she was actually clutching her clasped hands to her heart, and not in any sort of sarcastic way. She finally understood why the old ladies at the corner store did that so often. “I’m gonna make him a cake.”

Jason, for possibly the first time in his life, seemed to be at a loss for words. 

Steph continued, plowing her way through the conversation the only way she knew how -- with utmost confidence and brash assurance. “Do you think chocolate? Funfetti is probably too much, right? I mean I could do like, black sprinkles, but that takes the fun out of it. Maybe grey? Do they even make grey sprinkles?”

Jason seemed to finally regain his conversational footing. “So you’re not bothered by the fact that everyone thinks we’re dating?”

“I mean,” Steph said, and thought of Jordanna’s advice. She figured, fuck it. “Do you wanna?”

“Do I wanna what? Be bothered?”

“No, date,” Steph said. Jason was absolutely not reacting like she would have thought, and was almost adorably flustered the more the conversation derailed. 

He blinked at her a few times. “Did you set all this up so you could ask me out in the single most roundabout way anyone has ever been asked out?”

“Uh, I”m pretty sure Selina set up multiple jewel heists instead of just asking out Bruce so even if this had been on purpose, which it wasn’t, it wouldn’t even be the most roundabout way in your family.”

Jason ran a hand through his hair and flopped down next to her. “Valid point. So you’re just rolling with it, then? Easier to go out a few times than try to correct everyone?”

“Hey, mister, I have never taken the easy way out in my life,” Steph said, poking him in the arm. The door was wide open to make a ‘What, you think I’m easy?’ joke, but for once she didn’t think Jason would appreciate it. He seemed genuinely confused by the thought of her asking him out.

She really, really hoped she hadn’t misread the vibes.

“Really?” Jason said, raising an eyebrow at her. With his profile stark against the night sky and his hair falling over his forehead just right, he looked like a painting. She thought she could gaze at him all night. Steph smiled, reaching out to brush his hair gently back. 

“I didn’t ask you out for convenience,” Steph said. “I just… Maybe I let the rumor go on a bit longer than necessary, but it was because I liked the way our names sounded together.”

“Oh,” Jason said. “I would have thought--”

Steph waited, curious. 

Jason gave a sheepish smile. “I thought you wouldn’t actually be interested. I mean--”

“I mean, you thought I was blind and was just pretending to like your company?” Steph burst out with, because, seriously, she wasn’t exactly _subtle._

“No, I thought you would have issue with, you know, my philosophical differences with everyone.”

“Oh, the murder thing?” 

Jason opened his eyes wide and mimicked her, “ _Oh, the murder thing?_ Yes, obviously the murder thing!”

“But, you like, don’t do that anymore, right?” Steph said.

“Well, no,” Jason said, but he still looked ready to defend himself.

“Okay then,” Steph said. There was a lot else she could say, about how the Lazarus Pit had affected him, about how he was a different person -- but he wasn’t, really, even though he had settled more comfortably into his skin and come to terms with things that had happened. Excusing the past didn’t change it, but accepting him as he was now, embracing the person he was trying to be -- that was far more important.

She glanced over at him, biting her lip. “You’re a good person, Jason Todd. And just because I choose to not take lives, that doesn’t mean I’ve never thought about it.” She could still feel that cold weight of the gun in her hands, staring down Black Mask, and still was torn between thinking she’d made the right choice and wondering if she’d have rested easier going the other way. 

He shook his head. “That’s different.”

“I’ve done things I’m not proud of, too, remember,” Steph said softly. “I mean, I didn’t cut off anyone’s head, but that doesn’t make me any less responsible for things that happened. I live my life by hoping people judge me by my best moments, not my worst.” She reached out, touched Jason’s hand lightly. “I wouldn’t judge someone else harsher than I do myself.”

Jason looked at their hands, then squeezed hers, tangling their fingers together. “I knew I liked you for a reason. And for the record -- I don’t judge you for that shitshow. Not one bit.”

Steph laughed. “I can own my own mistakes. But thanks.”

There was so much tangled up in that time of her life that she didn’t like to think about, bumped right up against the things she cherished, and she didn’t want to talk about it too much. It could too easily turn into bitterness, and she thought that those edges of herself were already too fragile, and bitterness might make them crumble away and turn her into someone else.

She wasn’t quite sure how to explain that to Jason, who was looking at her like he wanted to tell her exactly, in detail, every way that she’d been failed by everyone, and then go tell them exactly where to shove their actions.

It settled a warm feeling in her chest, a soft happy thing that made her reckless and cheerful. No one else had ever looked at her quite that way, had ever wanted to defend her that way. She’d always defended herself, and she was proud of how she’d stood up to, well, everyone, but seeing it reflected back at her was an entirely new emotion.

Cass was the only one who’d come close.

She flung her arms around Jason, ignoring his surprised oof, and squeezed him tight. After a moment his hands hesitantly rested on her shoulders, then slid across her back to wrap her in a full-fledged hug.

It was nice. It was _really_ nice, actually. Steph had her face tucked against Jason’s chest, kevlar rough beneath her cheek, so she couldn’t see his face, but after the initial surprise, he relaxed against her, softening in a way that made their upper bodies fit against each other perfectly. 

The wind was ruffling her hair, and she was warm and content in Jason’s arms. There was only one thing bothering her. “You didn’t answer,” she mumbled into his chest.

“Hmm?” Jason’s voice was soft, like he didn’t want to disturb her. Like he didn’t want the hug to end. She wondered how long it had been since someone had just held him.

“Do you want to go out with me?” Steph said. She pulled back just enough to look up at him, staying within his arms. It was a good place to be.

Jason huffed a laugh, sheepish expression on his face. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

“Good,” Steph said, and tucked her head back against his chest. Gotham was quiet, the wind for once smelled like the ocean, and she had a date with a guy who would wholeheartedly defend her against Batman himself if need be. 

It was a good night.


End file.
